"There is a time That stands still When the needle breaks And vibrates the frequency of our death." From the song "Tepid" by Primitive Man

Monthly Archives: December 2017

Supplying you with a years worth of dread, horror and all things grotesque is Druid Lord, and slithering up from the crypt with them is their upcoming offering Grotesque Offerings. Pairing doom, death metal and all things horror, Druid Lord provide you with a sound that is raw, fear inducing and dripping with ooze and stagnant blood. As horrifying and terrifying as each of the ten tracks are on this effort, they are just as mesmerizing and enchanting. Druid Lord does a great job of catching your attention immediately after you press play. Even though the entire run time is around fifty minutes it never feels like a burden to listen all the way through and never once to you intend to leave the listen. Each track is captivating and bewitching and each track comes together in sickening harmony to present to you an unforgettable listen.

This macabre and dread inducing record is something to behold. Grotesque Offerings is monolithic as it presents to you ten ripping tracks that are chilling and stomach turning. Each track is just as sickening as the others and as a whole, Grotesque Offerings raises the hair on the back of your neck and makes you feel unsettled. The grim, slow burning and gnarled sound in which Druid Lord shovels out of your speakers makes you feel as though you are trapped in a nightmare from which you cannot find your way out of.

There is a dense, sinister and malevolent atmosphere that lingers above your head throughout Grotesque Offerings. This effort is truly menacing and a force to be reckoned with. Grotesque Offerings feels as though you are listening to a horror movie and not only that, but this release makes you feel as though you have been taken from the comfort of your own home and planted right in the middle of a horror film. The buzzing madness of the riffs, the blood curdling vocals, the cloaking atmosphere of misery and more come together to gift to you a skin crawling and horrifying listen.

The combination of death metal and doom on this record is damn near perfect as well. Druid Lord certainly isn’t afraid to step out of their realm of low and slow doom to provide you with faster paced face peeling death metal. Never do they lurch from one genre to the other as they work hand in hand to create a cohesive and disgusting sound that is all together addicting and intoxicating. The amalgamation of the two genres creates a wonderfully grim, dread filled and deadly tone that is so hard to get out of your head and out from underneath your skin.

Grotesque Offerings is pure madness as well as pure death and doom metal wizardry. This new effort from these shadow lurkers is truly something to behold and truly something to keep an eye out for. Come January this beast will be unleashed, and what a great way to kick off the new year. Be prepared.

Grotesque Offerings will be released through Hells Headbangers January 19, 2018

Take a listen to the track House of Dripping Gore from the upcoming release below!

Originally released in September of this year digitally and on vinyl is Faceless Burial’s debut full length Grotesque Miscreation and now with the help of Blood Harvest Records this monster of an effort will see the light of day yet again this time on CD. Grotesque Miscreation is set with ten tracks of brain boiling death metal. Nothing else within this release trifles with the overall raw and flesh cutting sound of pure death metal as this is exactly that, pure unfiltered death. Upon pressing play you get a tepid whiff of stagnant death and rotting unfortunate dead flesh and for ten straight tracks you become shrouded in nothing other than visceral and disgusting death.

These morgue suppliers begin Grotesque Miscreation with an ominous and unsettling intro that lasts for just over a single minute before really laying in to you with their blood fueled and intense brand of death metal. After the intro has concluded, Faceless Burial begins their sonic, sharp and chaotic assault with their weapons brandished aiming to lop off your head and cull the weak. Through the rest of the nine tracks that follow the intro you are subject to a raw and barbaric style of death metal that boils the blood and tears at your very tender flesh. Faceless Burial takes ques from their death metal forefathers and contorts those elements to create a pulverizing sound all their own.

Even though Faceless Burial takes ques from early death metal bands they never fall in to a rut and never sound exactly like their predecessors. Throughout Grotesque Miscreation, Faceless Burial’s sound is ever shifting and twisting never staying in one lane for entirely too long. With their own twists and elements added to each track, Faceless Burial gives the listener a varied and well rounded listen. Through each track you are greeted with something new and rarely are you ever beat over the head with the same riffs or drum patterns and what have you. Faceless Burial does a great job of mixing it up throughout Grotesque Miscreation bringing you along for a twisting and blood frenzied ride.

Through harsh rib splitting riffs, skull pummeling drumming and purely monstrous and blood craving vocals, Faceless Burial gifts you with a sonic wall of death and despair. The overall sound of Grotesque Miscreation is that of a crazed ax wielder on the hunt for his next victim. Grotesque Miscreation does a great job of snapping your neck back nearly from the get go never to relent until you have been shoved in to a shallow and early grave. Grotesque Miscreation is a monster as a whole as it administers blunt force trauma one track at a time until it leaves you feeling broken and bloodied.

This is pure death, pure, savage and bloodied death.

Grotesque Miscreation will be out on CD format January 18, 2017 through Blood Harvest Records.

Sewn together with black magick, the unyielding darkness of the Dark Lord himself and of course the blackest of metals is Anguis Dei’s newest offering Ad Portas Serpentium. This hell fire baptized release offers up four blackened incantations in the vein of orchestral black metal. Each track on this release provides you with a sound that is wondrous, harsh, bitter, venomous and dare I even say majestic. For a band that hasn’t been around for that long of a time, Anguis Dei certainly presents themselves as if they have. Each of the four tracks on this debut EP from these black magick wielding heathens is wonderfully crafted and executed gifting to you a great and enthralling listen.

Through only four tracks Anguis Dei does a great job of drawing you in and keeping your attention all throughout only for you to wish that there were more tracks tacked on. Anguis Dei combines orchestral elements with their ripping brand of black metal to provide you with an unholy yet captivating and mesmerizing listen. They sew their orchestral elements together with their black metal elements beautifully and seamlessly spinning spectral, haunting and all together enchanting atmospheres and soundscapes. Once you begin listening it is truly incredibly difficult to want to stop. The orchestral elements enchant you all while the soul tearing black metal does just as it was described, rips your soul.

Anguis Dei also does a great job of balancing the more unrelenting blasting moments with more ethereal moments providing you with diversity among each and every track. With that being said, Anguis Dei shifts between these moments seamlessly and flawlessly never lurching from one to the other and back again. Each track is fluid even though they are ever changing in tempo and style as Anguis Dei executes these tracks with ease. Never are you subject to just a sonic assault and never are you just greeted with the angelic yet sometimes haunting orchestral moments as Anguis Dei balances everything through each track so well gifting to you a seamless and comprehensive listen.

The overall sound throughout Ad Portas Serpentium is pure as nothing but the blackest of metals courses through the veins of this entire release. Ad Portas Serpentium is satanic, dark, grim, haunting and light stealing, but most importantly it just is a great overall release. Each track works in harmony to bring to you a solid well rounded listen that is hard to forget and hard to not want to listen to. Ad Portas Serpentium is an alluring effort, one that mesmerizes and sweeps you off to shadowy soundscapes and provides you with a wonderfully dark atmosphere as well.

The combination of orchestral elements and barbaric black metal is a welcome one and Anguis Dei pull it off oh so well. Each track is just as well done as the others and this EP as a whole keeps you coming back for more and makes you want even more as four tracks just isn’t enough. The only gripe that I have about this release is simply the fact that it isn’t long enough and that’s just me being selfish. Other than that, Ad Portas Serpentium is a solid effort especially for a debut offering. This is an entertaining, captivating and all around heavy effort that is well worth numerous listens.

Inspired by death metal greats but aiming to surpass them and annihilate and dismember anyone that gets in their path is Boia. These monsters are loud, abrasive, caustic, blood curdling and aim to spread as much death and destruction as possible, so it seems. Chivalry of Death is the title of their very first recording and within this release you are subject to five tracks that total just about twelve whole minutes. Don’t pay too much attention to the run time though as Boia provides you with enough stagnant and stale death within those twelve minutes to last you an entire full length. Chivalry of Death is a raw, pummeling and eviscerating release that snaps your head back right from the get go never to relent until your limbs have been severed from your body.

Boia doesn’t give you too much time at all to get acquainted with their horrifying brand of death metal as they storm out of your speakers with the intent to maim and kill. After their ominous intro-and the signal of your death-Call of the Necromatter all bets are off as Boia blasts and chips away at your skull exposing your rotted and fetid brain. From the second track on you are treated to a deadly sonic assault that curdles your blood and drains the life from your eyes. Each track on this effort is a raw and unrelenting beast and they only seem to be out for blood and chaos.

Chivalry of Death is a blitzkrieg of a release as it hits you swiftly but just continues to beat you over the head with frenzied riffs, blood thirsty vocals and relentlessly blasting drums. Before you know it the entire release is over and you are reaching for the play button again and again for more and more torment and mayhem. As quick as this release is it is packed to the bursting point with solid, well constructed and performed death metal that you can’t get enough of. Chivalry of Death is an effort that you don’t mind listening to numerous times and re-snapping your neck to.

Boia takes what their death metal forefathers did so well and amplifies it to create something that is loud, shocking, accosting and all around venomous and purely deadly. For their very first recording this is a solid one and keeps you wanting more and more at the end of it all.

Chivalry of Death will be released December 18, 2017 through Caligari Records.

Hailing from Northern Ireland, specifically Lisburn and Belfast is grind outfit Wardomized. Forced to Eat From the Apple Tree is their second EP to come out three years after their debut EP titled In the Raw. Much like their debut EP, Forced to Eat From the Apple Tree is a short but blasting offering that does its best to peel your face back over your scalp. Each of the four tracks that are present on this release are played between a mid and up-tempo pace that gets your head rocking back and forth before you know it. Each track is gritty and grime filled with an intense raw feel to them as well. There is just no bullshit here as what you get for four straight tracks is ferocious and deadly grind.

Wardomized doesn’t wait to shoot right out of the gate and out of your speakers as they hit you quick and hard with their opener Suicide Death Rock-Inflicted By Force. This near three minute track sets the tone for the rest of the EP as it barrels out of your speakers hitting you square in your chest as well as your gnarled ear drums. This track is a rampaging one as it blasts away at your skull immediately only to cease its assault once it has concluded. The track to follow is an interesting one especially for a grind band. Blue, White and Black Flowers is a slower offering for the majority of its run time only to pick up at the very end to provide you with a deadly caustic assault for the last few seconds. Blue, White and Black Flowers breaks up the usual grind and blast first ask questions later formula and provides you with some variety and diversity among the usual brain scrambling grind.

After Blue, White and Black Flowers concludes you become bombarded with more sonic punishment firmly rooted back in the grind landscape. Each of the four tracks on this release have their own unique sound to them making them stand out among the others. Never does it seem as though you are listening to the same songs over and over again as Wardomized does a great job in providing you with plenty of variety throughout only four tracks. Forced to Eat From the Apple Tree doesn’t just sound like a wall of spastic noise, instead you can clearly pick out each track and really enjoy each of the track’s own uniqueness.

Overall, Forced to Eat From the Apple Tree is a solid EP, one that grind fans will surely enjoy. This EP is short of course but that only means that you get to listen to it again and again while bashing your brain against the front and back of your skull. The musicianship is on point and the vocals are monstrous and throat ripping as one would expect and to top everything off this EP has a nice raw and gritty kind of production that is wholly enjoyable. Forced to Eat From the Apple Tree is an all around entertaining and enjoyable listen.

Deploying an all out aural assault in the heaviest of manners is Coughdust as they combine doom, death metal and stoner metal. With their newest offering Worldwrench, Coughdust once again display their overall terrorizing and terrifying sound within only six tracks. Throughout this release the level of mayhem is off the charts as Coughdust hammers down upon you with their highly venomous and abrasive style of doom riddled death metal. From the very first note on you quickly realize that you are in for an utterly devastating, pessimistic, and deadly listen. The longer that you listen the lower that you sink in to your very own self dug grave. Through and through, Coughdust does not skip out or short you on brutality and heaviness as each track is just as potent and pointed as the others.

Worldwrench is almost like walking through a trippy and vivid nightmare from which you cannot crawl back from. The deadly and all together flesh ripping sounds of doom and death are coupled with psychedelic aspects of stoner metal to create a very vivid depiction of your death. The psychedelic tendencies play a smaller role in this chaotic brain bashing effort, but the role that they do play helps elevate each track to new and more mortifying heights. As mentioned above, Worldwrench is like stepping in to a nightmare in which everything is out to steal your life from you. Each track is massive and unforgiving as they shred your ear drums and pummel you within an inch of your life. These six tracks are caustic, bone breaking anthems of pure misery and disgust.

This effort is raw, unrelenting, blood curdling and life threatening and at the end of it all you feel a strong need to put yourself right back through all of the torment. This forty minute onslaught is just that, an onslaught. Never once does Coughdust relent as they shovel as much pain and torment upon you within their six tracks. Each track storms out of your speakers in grizzly fashion, mauling you and picking at your very life. Each cut on this effort is monolithic in stature and has the capability to crush you whenever they see fit. Through and through, Coughdust buries you under an incredible avalanche of buzzing and gnashing riffs, heavy handed drumming, bone rattling bass lines and vocals that are entirely monstrous and blood thirsty. Once you press play there certainly is no escaping the sonic wall of doom and death misery that is doled out in heaping proportions.

The overall sound of Worldwrench is one that looms over you like never ending dread. Coughdust has created a sound that is in your face yet groove filled, pessimistic, deadly, venomous, blood curdling among other descriptors. The amalgamation of doom, death and stoner metal is a great combination and each element works hand in hand to provide you with a ceaseless assault on your deformed ears. There is no where to hide from the wall of sonic misery once you begin listening. Worldwrench is as confronting and in your face as it gets and never once does Coughdust back down or let their boot off of your throat.

This is one heavy mass of doom and death that isn’t to be taken lightly. At the end of the listen you ultimately want more and reach for the play button again more often than not. For a doom record this is a relatively short one, but even so, Coughdust provides you with more than enough content. Overall, Worldwrench is a solid record to say the least. Each of the six tracks that are present on this effort are well performed and put together to create a cohesive and ultimately deadly listen.

The members of Monolith Cult certainly are no strangers to heavy metal and doom as each member is either a former member of Khang, Lazarus Blackstar, Solstice and Ironrat. The culmination of their efforts as well as their love for heavy metal and doom in general shines through within their sophomore effort titled Gospel of Despair. Monolith Cult seems to be the very embodiment of epic doom metal and Gospel of Despair is their damn near perfect offering to the world. When you thought that epic doom could possibly be in a rut or couldn’t possibly be any better than it already is, Monolith Cult proves that epic doom metal is here to stay and that there is still so much more to offer.

The seven passages that are featured on this release are all very well done and incredible in their own individual ways, but as a whole they create such a cohesive and mesmerizing sound. Gospel of Despair is a record that sucks you in right from the very beginning and keeps you listening and nodding your head for its entirety and then some. Each track has this innate ability to stick to you and get stuck in your head and until you listen through and through numerous times, they will never leave. Through and through, Gospel of Despair is an incredibly well put together and well executed record. Each track is a seamless display of the ultimate power that epic doom metal wields and each track is sure to mesmerize and put a spell over you.

The grand groove filled riffs and the soaring hypnotic vocals as well as the dark and dense atmospheres that course through the veins of this release are sure to put you in a trance. The musicianship all throughout this record is flawless and captivating and with that coupled with the clean enchanting vocals you are gifted with such a wondrous and incredibly clean and intoxicating sound. Throughout each track, these doom magicians show off their heavy doom and heavy metal prowess as each musician comes together to provide you with a cohesive and incredibly powerful and undeniable sound.

Throughout Gospel of Despair you are greeted with not only lurching, slow burning doom passages, but you are also confronted with mid-tempo romps that send your head in to a tailspin as well. Monolith Cult does a great job of changing up their tempos and style every now and then throughout each track to provide you with plenty of variety. Never once does any one of the seven tracks sound identical and never once does Monolith Cult repeat themselves all throughout this release. Each track has its own identifying features and never do you feel as though you are listening to the same track over and over again. With that said, everything melts together so well and each track sews together seamlessly creating a comprehensive and whole sound that is unforgettable.

Gospel of Despair is a massive and powerful record that is surely hard to forget and is certainly one of the better doom releases this year. Through seven tracks you are provided with forty-three minutes plus of nothing but some incredibly solid and well executed epic doom metal that is highly intoxicating and highly addictive. Not enough can be said about this release, and before I begin to repeat myself the last thing that I have to say about this effort is that it simply is a great release.